While Malaysia was gripped with the national team's commendable run in the recently-concluded 2018 AFF Championship, the association and its newly-elected officials were grappling with a mutiny by 52 of their disgrunted former officials and members, who held their own extraordinary meeting (EGM) on November 8 to elect its own line-up.

Last Saturday, association president Tengku Amir Shah Sultan Sharafuddin announced the sacking of 43 affiliate members who had not been cooperative with the direction that he wants to take.

Tengku Amir Shah. Photo by Zulhilmi Zainal

The Malaysian Sports Commission (PSM) too had been involved, and on Wednesday the club announced that a recent decision by the commission has deemed that the November EGM had not been undertaken according to its own statute.

When contacted by Goal, Izhar provided the details of the letter.

"The letter from PSM stated that the rogue faction had gone against the statute. The committee members at the time were not removed from office, when an election can only be held after the office bearers at the time have been removed. That's the most important fact.

"Secondly, they did not have the quorum to call for an EGM. Yes, they initially had the signatures of 67 members who wanted the EGM, but in the space of two weeks, 22 of them retracted their approvals or had their memberships found to be void. They did not have the 50 per cent required to hold the meeting. And for these reasons, PSM cannot recognise the validity of the EGM," he said in a telephone conversation.

And according to Izhar, under the leadership of Tengku Amir, it is this failure to adhere to the books that the FAS intends to avoid in their handling of this matter, including in the sacking of the rogue faction. The dissenters' spokesperson, Datuk Ariffin Abd Hamid on Tuesday stated their intention of suing Tengku Amir for their dismissal.

"We have not been in contact with them recently, and have not received any official communications from them. But in regard to the lawsuit, we can't think of any angle that they can approach from, because we've not done anything wrong. We've not defamed them, we haven't broken any parts of the statute, or broken any laws. I can't think of any.

"As far as we are concerned, we have gone through the proper process; we have started the motion to sack them, sent the affiliate clubs a show-cause letter, table the motion to the exco (executive committee) for a secret ballot. And the exco agreed to their dismissal unanimously. We have been very careful on how we were going to dismiss them. We have all the minutes and proof of the secret ballot; it's water tight.

"PSM has been made aware of the dismissal, but this is an internal issue and the commission does not interfere in internal dealings. They will only investigate when a complaint has been lodged to them," he explained further.

Thankfully, potential sponsors for their 2019 campaign have been understanding of their situation, and are bullish on Tengku Amir's vision and direction.

"We've managed to convince several parties that we are able to provide value, firstly by us showing our level of professionalism. Despite all that has been happening, our efforts to secure sponsorships and partners have not stopped, we have not been sitting still.

"They believe in the direction, in the vision, they've seen the progress we've made in the past three, four months. They believe in the head coach, in the signings. They are very convinced that things will get better, now that the 'distractions' have been handled," stated the official.